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The role of SiC and Different Binders on Mechanical Strength and Compaction
of Silica Based Refractories Materials

Research · November 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4974.2164

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International Journal of ISSI
ISSI,,Vol .12 (2013),
Vol.10 (2015), No.1
No.1, pp. 37-41

The role of SiC and Different Binders on Mechanical Strength and Compaction
of Silica Based Refractories Materials

E. Karamian 1 , H. Gheisari 2*, V. Kadkhodaei 3 and A. Monshi 4

Advanced Materials Research Center, Faculty of Materials Engineering,Najafabad
1, 3, 4

Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran

2
Department of mechanical and material, Lenjan branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

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Abstract

Silica refractory bricks are used especially in the metallurgical industries, due to desirable properties such
as high melting point, rigidity, and high temperatures strength. In this research, different amount of SiC
were added to Silica refractory containing different binders such as Borax, Boric acid, Calcium nitride,
Sodium tri poly phosphate, Sodium hexa meta phosphate (SHMP) and lime. Physical properties (density
and porosity), mechanical properties (cold crush strength, CCS) and microstructure were studied. This
study indicated that SiC improves the physical and mechanical properties. In general, increasing SiC
with different binders improve the mechanical and compaction in the samples. Silica refractory sample
containing 20 %wt. SiC and 5 % wt. borax as a binder had the best results of mechanical strength and
compaction. In this sample, glassy phases fill the voids and increase temperature between particles. In
fact, glass phase formation increases compaction, density, and strength.

Keywords: AISI 1060 Steel, Tempering, Hardness, Tensile, Fatigue.

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1. Introduction

Refractory materials can be divided into several
classes based on: chemical composition (acid, basic
and special), method of implementation (shaped and
unshaped), method of manufacture (fused and sin-
tered), and porosity content (porous and dense). These
materials are supposed to be resistant to heat and are
exposed to various degrees of mechanical stress and
strain, corrosion from liquids and gases, and mechani-
cal abrasion at high temperature 1-8). Different types
of refractory materials can be synthesized according
to the nature of the raw materials and the used pro-
cess. The application fields of refractory are vast and
depend on the properties of each type. In fact, the per-
formance of a refractory (good resistance to heat and
thermal shock) is directly related to texture and richness
of the mineral refractories, such as mullite, corundum,
periclase, doloma, spinel and alumina 9-10) .
Silica refractory bricks possess excellent thermal
shock resistance, particularly in certain temperature
ranges.
*Corressponding author
Email: Gheisary@iauln.ac.ir
Address: Department of mechanical and material, Lenjan
branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
1. Assistant Professor
2. Assistant Professor
3. M.Sc.
4. Professor
One of the outstanding characteristic of silica bricks
is their resistance to corrosion by acid slag and iron
oxide. However they are readily attacked by basic slag
and fluorine 11-12). Silica refractories are in the acidic
refractories category. Silicon dioxide (white sand) was
used as a raw material for production of this bricks.
Good quartz should be gray. Reddish in color indicat-
ed the presence of finely distributed iron oxide. Dark
to black discoloration is caused by manganese oxides
or by contaminations. Understanding the composition
of impurities in raw materials, and its performance is
very important in controlling the properties of refrac-
tories. Especially that, certain compounds in the raw
materials may be formed compounds with a low melt-
ing point and with drastic change in the viscosity of
the liquid phase, strongly affects behavior of refracto-
ries 13-14). Another material that is used for production
of silica bricks is lime. A major function of the lime
used in making silica refractories is reversing th ef-
fect of quartz to Tridymite ratio. The phase diagram of
silica-lime system shows why considerable quantities
of lime may be used to bond the quartz in silica bricks
without loss of refractory. The action of pure lime as
a mineralizing agent in the tridymitisation of silica
brick raw material at 1250 ˚C is due to the diffusion
of calcium ions into the silica surface. The porosity
in the refractory structure considerably influences
its strength. According to the existing standards, the
porosity of silica bricks varies between 20% and

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 E. Karamian et al. / International Journal of ISSI 12 (2015), No.1, 37-41

24% 15). In this study, different amount of SiC were separately added to silicon. The mixture was mixed
added to silica refractories containing different bind- for three minutes. Table 3 shows the specifications of
ers such as borax, boric acid, calcium nitride, sodi- samples. After adding the binders and mixing them
um tri poly phosphate, sodium hexa meta phosphate with the main compound, 7 wt. % of moisture was
(SHMP) and Lime to improve physical properties and added to the samples and they were mixed properly
mechanical properties. for 5 min. After the mixing phase which resulted in a
homogenous mix, the next step was to shape the sam-
2. Experimental Procedures ples. The most common way of shaping refractories is
2.1. Materials dry and semi-dry pressing. One of the most important
objectives of pressing is to compact components to the
In this study, silica with different aggregation, as fill- possible extent by applying pressure.
er and base material was used. The chemical composi-
tion of silica used in this study is shown in Table 1. Table 3. Formulation of samples.
Calcium Borax Boric SHMP STPP Lime SiC Silica Sample
Table 1. The chemical composition of silica used. Nitride Acid
wt.% wt.% wt.% wt.% wt.% wt.% wt.% wt.% code
Composition SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO K2O SO3 Na2O LOI
- - - - - 5 10 100 A1
wt.% 95.65 1.41 1.24 0.474 0.38 0.092 0.200 0.217
- - - - 5 - 10 100 A2

Understanding the composition of impurities in raw - - - 5 - - 10 100 A3

materials, and its performance is very important in
controlling the properties of refractories. Especially - - 5 - - - 10 100 A4
that, certain compounds in the raw materials may
form compounds with low melting point and with - 5 - - - - 10 100 A5
drastic change in the viscosity of the liquid phase,
5 - - - - - 10 100 A6
which strongly affect behavior of refractories. Dif-
ferent binder such as Borax, Boric Acid, Calcium Ni- - - - - - 5 20 100 A7
tride, Sodium tri poly phosphate (STPP), SHMP and
lime are used. In this study, micro, nano silica and SiC - - - - 5 - 20 100 A8
with grain size about 100 µm were also used. In order
to overcome the inherent compressive limitations of - - - 5 - - 20 100 A9
powders it is possible to increase their density by dis-
- - 5 - - - 20 100 A10
tributing the granule size. The key to the improvement
of compaction is the proportion of granule size. In or- - 5 - - - - 20 100 A11
der to obtain the best mix ratio and distribute silica
particles the Andreasen’s formula was used. 5 - - - - - 20 100 A12

q= (d/D) n*100 (Eq. 1)

D: the largest granule size (mm), d: size of the existing
granule (mm), n: shape factor (0.2-0.4)
q: percentage of granule sizes smaller than d.
The mix ratio of silica granules is shown in Table 2
based on Andreasen’s formula.
Table 2. The mix ratio of silica granules.
Particles
Size 841-1680 707-841 354-707 250-354 149-250 +149
Micro Nano
Silica Silica
(µm)
In this step, the resulting mix was cast into a cylin-
drical mold and was shaped using a hydraulic press at
a pressing pressure of 200 psi. Pressed samples were
in the shape of bushes with external diameter of 50
mm, height of 15 mm, internal diameter of 30 mm, and
internal height of 10 mm. In the next step, the shaped
samples were stored for 24 h in a dryer at a tempera-
ture of 60 degrees to be fully dried. Next, the samples
were burnt in an electric furnace with a temperature
increase rate of 5 ºC/min at a temperature of 1350ºC
when the temperature reached 1350ºC, samples were
stored for two hours at this temperature.

wt.% 18.7 4.09 14.4 6.27 10.6 35.9 5.37 5.4 2.2. Experimental Procedure

In order to determine the effect of silicon carbide, To assess and evaluate the porosity and density of re-
100 g of silicon with the aforementioned grading was fractory materials, the Archimedes method was used.
mixed with 10 and 20 wt. % of SiC and then 5 wt. The diagonal pressure test is used as a mean of mea-
% of the aforementioned binders. These steps were suring the strength of refractory materials. This test,

38
E. Karamian et al. / International Journal of ISSI 12 (2015), No.1, 37-41

which is known as the nucleus failure test or Brazil- Table 5. Porosity, water absorption and bulk
ian test, is among the strength tests in which failure is density of silica refractory samples containing
caused by application of tensile stress. The maximum 20 wt. % of silicon carbide.
tensile stress that uniformly affects a diameter under
Water absorption Bulk Density
load is obtained as follow: (%)
Porosity (%)
(g/cm3)
Binders

11.74 25.99 2.21 Lime

σ = 2F/πdl (Eq. 2) 12.16 27.48 2.25
Sodium Tri Poly
Phosphate
9.76 21.72 2.22 SHMP
σ: Effective stress, F: force, d: diameter (mm), l:
10.71 22.75 2.12 Boric Acid
height (mm) 6.84 19.02 2.35 Borax
12.28 28.86 2.19 Calcium Nitride
3. Results
3.1. Density and porosity
3.2. Cold Crush Strength (CCS)
Porosity percentage is one of the important charac-
teristics of refractory samples and improves with an Cold crush strength is greatly influenced by the par-
increase in density of the physical properties of the ticles distribution function because distribution of par-
samples at lower apparent porosity. Tables 4 and 5 ticles affects the density and porosity of refractories.
show the porosity, water absorption percentage, and With proper distribution of fine and coarse particles
volume density of silica refractory samples that con- and placement of fine particles between coarse par-
tain 10 wt. % to 20 wt. % of SiC and different binders. ticles, the raw density of the sample increases as its
According to this Table, samples containing borax, porosity declines. With the decrease in the porosity of
SHMP, and boric acid showed the highest density and the refractory structure and an increase in its density,
lowest porosity. These materials form a glass phase the cold crush strength also grows.
and improve the bonds between granules. The additives in the refractory compound improve
Boric acid loses its moisture at a temperature of the sintering of samples and the cohesion between re-
170ºC and turns into HBO2. At a temperature of fractory particles. As a result, the strength of refracto-
300ºC, it loses water once again and breaks down to ries escalates. As the diagrams suggest, borax, boric
B2O3. Borax without crystallized water has relatively acid, and SHMP increase refractory strength. Sinter-
better properties compared to boric acid. The lack of ing of silicon particles and sintering supplements such
crystallized water leads to a reduction in time and fa- as borax, boric acid, and SHMP at the time of baking
cilitates the refractory sintering process. At a tempera- the samples are factors that increase the strength of
ture of 580ºC, B2O3 in the refractory compound melts samples. Borax, boric acid and SHMP react with the
and fills the spaces between silica particles. Hence, the silicon in the refractory compound during the baking
porosity of the refractory material declines as its den- process and form a glass phase. The resulting glass
sity increases. SHMP is inherently amorphous and its phase fills the spaces between particles and leads to
presence in the refractory compound leads to the for- the cohesion and cold compressive strength of sam-
mation of phosphate glass at the refractory level and ples.
binding of particles. The resulting diagrams suggest that by adding SiC
According to this table it can be concluded that by to the refractory compound the cold crush strength
adding SiC to the refractory compound, it is possible of samples grows. Therefore, samples containing 20
to enhance the physical properties of refractories. wt. % of SiC demonstrate a better crush strength than
With an increase in the amount of the SiC added to samples containing 10 wt. % of silicon carbide.
the refractory compound, the physical properties of
the refractory material improve drastically. Samples
containing 20 wt. % of SiC has a lower porosity and
water absorption capacity than samples containing 10
wt. % of SiC.
Table 4. Porosity, water absorption and bulk
density of silica refractory samples Containing 10
wt. % of silicon carbide.
Water absorption Bulk Density
Porosity (%) Binders
(%) (g/cm3)
11.82 26.06 2.20 Lime
Sodium Tri Poly
13.26 29.56 2.23 Phosphate
10.50 23.14 2.20 SHMP
Fig .3. Cold crushing strength (MPa), of samples
11.76 23.65 2.10 Boric Acid
10.49 22.79 2.17 Borax
containing10 wt. % SiC with different binders.
13.74 31.92 2.32 Calcium Nitride

39
 E. Karamian et al. / International Journal of ISSI 12 (2015), No.1, 37-41

Fig .4. Cold crushing strength (MPa), of samples containing 20 wt. % SiC
with different binders.
3.4. Microstructure

The significance of microstructure studies for identification and analysis of refractory material properties results
from their diverse consequences. Results of microstructure studies give an overall image of the following proper-
ties of the structure: grading; type, extent and distribution of phases; porosity distribution; existence of defects such
as cracks; and degree of homogeneity. These results can be used to predict the behavior of the refractory material.
The scanning electron microscopy micrographs of samples containing 10 wt. % and 20 wt. % of silica carbide with
5 wt.% of SHMP is presented in the following. As seen in these figures, the phosphate glass phase that formed by
adding SHMP to the refractory compound provides a pervasive environment. Bubbles resulted from exposure of
the compounds to hydrochloric acid are small. The relatively scattered porosity also reflects a reduction in strength
and an increase in the corrosion of these samples. The cleavages result under the yield force from the glass phase.
The above figures indicate that the increased strength obtained by adding 20 wt. % of SiC to the refractory com-
pound was higher than the results obtained by adding 10 wt. % of SiC.

Fig .5. SEM image of a sample containing 10 wt. %, SiC with 5 wt. % SHMP in different magnifications.
40
 E. Karamian et al. / International Journal of ISSI 12 (2015), No.1, 37-41
Fig .6. SEM micrographs of a sample containing 20 wt. % silicon carbide with 5 wt.% SHMP in different
magnifications.
.
4. Conclusion
According to above results, increasing SiC with dif-
.
ferent binders improve the mechanical and compac-
tion properties.
With an increase in the amount of the SiC added
to the refractory, the properties of the compound im-
prove considerably. On the other hand, use of binders
.
such as borax, boric acid and SHMP also helps to im-
prove refractory properties.
In fact, these materials react with the silicon in the
compound at the time of baking the refractory and
by forming a glass phase result in improved particle
cohesion, increased density, reduced porosity, and in-
creased cold compressive strength.
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